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LOYAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 
J\*o. 65.— Part 3. 



THE SUBMISSIONISTS AND THEIR RECORD. 



What a Copperhead Mayor says of our Victories. 



Mayors Office, New Yokk, Sept. 29, 1804. 
To the Honorable the Common Council : 

Gentlemen: Your resolution of the 26th instant, appointing 
a "committee of five from each Board, for the purpose of 
making the necessary arrangements to cause the various public 
buildings to be illuminated in honor of the recent victories on 
land and sea," is returned unapproved. 

I might acquiesce in your response to an appeal of your fel- 
low-citizens, who might desire to give expression to their feelings 
respecting these victories, but I must decline to comply with 
your request to issue a proclamation to the citizens generally, to 
join in such an illumination, for various reasons, which I will 
briefly state. 

1. If I should issue such a proclamation, there are mam/ 
citizens who would be denounced as disloyal, if through want of 
opportunity or inclination, or of means, they failed to comply 
with the recommendation. 

2. By those in authority, they are not claimed as Union vic- 
tories, but as the result of the Emancipation Proclamations, and 
latest war measure of President Lincoln, as announced in his 
" To whom it may concern " manifesto. 

3. It is asserted that the new policy of the Administration 
will give tcs a succession of victories. If this is the case your 
honorable body will be called, upon to illuminate every fort- 
night, and N if the papers in the employ of the Administration, 
who daily parade " the defeat of the rebels," are to be believed, 
three times a week. *:• : : :•• ; : ••• ••. „\ *.♦. •. .• 



I yield to no man in my attachment to " the Union as it was 
and the Constitution as it is," but as the President demands of 
the Southern people to abandon the rights which the Constitu- 
tion confers, I do not see how those who have always held that 
the Federal Government has nothing to do with the domestic 
institutions of the States, can be expected to rejoice over 
victories which, whatever they may he, surely are not Union 
victories. 

If those victories were to unite the States, and were a sure 
harbinger of peace, I would be pleased, if I could issue such a 
proclamation as would induce the poorest citizen to part with 
his last mite for the purchase of a single tallow candle to cele- 
brate the event. 

4. It has been the immemorial custom of mankind, in all ages 
and climes, to abstain from rejoicing over victories gained in civil 
wars, and such has been the practice thus far during the present 
strife, which has distracted our once happy Union. The only 
effect of departing from this usage, sanctioned alike by humanity 
and sound policy, will be to acknowledge, by such exhibitions 
that these are victories over aliens and enemies, and that there 
is no hope of securing peace on the basis of the Federal Union. 
This hope, in common with a large portion of our fellow-citizens, 
1 am not prepared to abandon. 

You are aware that here is the essential difference between 
the two parties now contending for political mastery in the 
Northern States; one of these declares that no terms can be 
offered " except such as may be based upon an unconditional 
surrender " of the rights of the States, and the other maintains 
that " peace may be restored on the basis of the Federal 
Union." 

Taking into consideration that a canvass is now in progress of 
the most exciting character, I am forced to regard the proposed 
demonstration as one of a political nature, and, according to the 
rule which I laid down for my guidance on entering upon the 
duties of Mayor, I cannot give it my official indorsement. 

C. GODFREY GUNTHER, Mayor. 

There's the document ! It sets forth more tersely and justly 
than anything else we have seen, the real temper and spirit of 
the party which demands " immediate efforts for a cessation of 
hostilities." The Mayor is afraid to rejoice over victories lest 
those who won't rejoice should be suspected of disloyalty. He 
is fearful, if we begin this business, we shall have to rejoice over 
fresh victories " three times a week !" And to cap the climax, 
these are not Union victories at all, but — something else. Will 
not Mayor Gunther bring his great intellectual powers to bear 



3 

on the question once more and tell us what they are ? Thev 
certainly are not rebel victories. They can scarcely be claimed 
as Democratic victories. If they are not Union victories, pray 
what are they ? 

We are sorry we cannot comfort the Mayor or his party with 
hopes of their "cessation." Their demand for a "cessation of 
hostilities" has not yet been indorsed by the American people 
and until it is, we fear the Mayor's political reveries will con- 
tinue to be disturbed by Union victories and public rejoicings. 

Whatever else he may or may not be. Mayor Gunther, is a 
" Democrat " in the party acceptation of the word. His ortho- 
doxy has never been disputed or doubted. He is and always 
has been in good and regular standing. The party elected him, 
not so much on account of his splendid talents or of his brilliant 
personal qualities of any sort, as because he was known to be a 
genuine, unmistakeable, unadulterated disciple of the modern 
Democracy. They have made him Mayor, and natural! v 
enough he now feels bound to represent their principles and 
carry out their views. 

When the Common Council, therefore, yielded so far to out- 
side pressure as to urge a public illumination on account of our 
victories, Mayor Gunther promptly squelched this unseemly de- 
parture from party principles and gave these gentlemen to un- 
derstand that he should tolerate no such proceedings. He be- 
lieves in the Chicago platform, — and that standard of the faith 
does not allow rejoicings over victories in an unjust and unholy 
war. 

The Mayor's exposition of this subject is so clear and compact 
a statement of the sentiments and purposes of his party, that it 
ought to be widely circulated, and universally read. The 
National Committee appointed at Chicago ought to issue it a- .1 
campaign document and spread it broadcast over the country. 
They have been a little remiss, it is true, in not publishing their 
platform in this shape : — but they can make up for this by 
issuing the two together. Meantime we will give the Mayor's 
message the benefit of an additional insertion in our columns 



What Mr. Pendleton thinks of Coercion. 

Extract from Speech of January 18, 1861. 

"Now, Sir, what force of arms can compel a State to do thai 
which she has agreed to do? What force of arms can compel a 
State to refrain from doing that which her State Government, 



supported by the sentiment of her people, is determined to per- 
sist in doing? It is provided in the Constitution that the citizens 
of every State shall have all the privileges and immunities of 
citizens of the several States. What force of this Federal Gov- 
ernment can compel the observance of that clause, if a State is 
determined to pass and execute laws whereby citizens of other 
States shall not have within its limits, the same privileges as its 
own citizens? 

" ' Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the 
public acts and judicial proceedings of every other State.' How 
will the Federal Government, by armies and arms, enforce the 
observance of that clause in the Constitution, if the judiciary 
and the executive authorities of a State, supported by the laws, 
refuse such faith and credit. ? 

" ' No State, without the consent of Congress, shall lay any 
imposts or duties on imports.' Suppose a State should pass such 
a law, and the citizens were willing to execute the law, what 
army could prevent it ? 

" ' No State shall, without the consent of Congress, enter into 
any agreement or compact with a foreign Power.' I wish to 
know from gentlemen what number of men it would require to 
annul such an agreement, once made. The General Government 
is invested with certain powers, necessary to be executed, in 
order to keep the machinery of the Government in motion. 
Can any number of troops, or the use of any armed force on the 
part of the States, compel the General Government to execute 
those powers, if the agents appointed for that purpose deliber- 
ately, persistently refuse to execute them ? Sir, the whole 
scheme of coercion is impraoticable. It is contrary to the 
genius and spirtt of the Constitution" 



Loyal Leagues, Clubs or individuals may obtain any of our 
Publications at the cost price, by application to the Executive 
Committee or by calling at the Rooms of the Society, iTo. 863 
Broadway, where all information may be obtained relating to 
the Society. 



Fraxois & Loctbbl, Stationers »n J Printers, 45 Maiden Laos, N. T. 

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